California family saved at sea sues phone company

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A couple rescued with their sick 1-year-old from a disabled sailboat hundreds of miles off the Mexican coast are suing a satellite phone company, contending they lost their boat because their phone service was wrongly cut.

Eric and Charlotte Kaufman were on an around-the-world cruise in April with their 1-year-old and 3-year-old daughters when the vomiting, feverish younger girl forced them to call for help.

U-T San Diego reports the lawsuit filed Monday claims if they hadn't lost service, they would've been able to get medical advice over the phone. Instead, they were forced to sound the alarm that brought the Coast Guard to their rescue and resulted in their boat being sunk.

Whenever Communications, the company in charge of the service, did not reply to requests for comment.